Walt Mamaluy, John Vasudaven, Matt Jules Rhine, Reginald DeJesus, Joe Boylan having just gotten their asses handed to them in New York City, July 2015

Prolific and legendary Philadelphia indie band formed on South St in 2002. Known for an eclectic mix of music featured on 10 released full length albums.

After breaking up in 2012, The Disgruntled Sherpa Project reunited in the summer of 2014 and headed directly into the studio. Over the course of the fall and winter the band wrote and recorded 13 tracks that spanned rock, folk, country and blues and incorporated instruments such as the trumpet, cello, French horn and ukulele along with their normal two guitars, bass, piano and drums sound.

Although not written as a theme album, it is a geographical journey that begins in the worn torn jungles of Nicrauga and ends on a calm, warm midsummer’s night in North Wildwood, NJ with stops along the way in western Canada, suburban America, sunbaked Latin America, South Florida, rural Pennsylvania, Civil War era Virginia, Afghanistan and the Midwest. This landscape is populated by thieves, killers, drug smugglers, gun runners, down on their luck musicians and bar patrons, soldiers, star crossed lovers, entitled millenials, defiant working men struggling to survive, tortured souls, nostalgic Southern Rock fans and loving mothers.

The second album recorded by the band since their 2014 reunification, Catastrophe consists of punchy rock songs, bass and rhythm funk songs and long sprawling epic guitar tunes.

The band returned to Red Planet recording studio in Clifton Heights, PA in the summer of 2016 and over the course of one day laid down 10 songs for their new album. Whereas previous releases offered country and folk flavored acoustic numbers Catastrophe contains no acoustic guitars and relies many on harder driving rhythms by bassist Walt Mamaluy and drummer John Vasudevan and rock guitars by Joe Boylan and Reginald DeJesus.

Matt Rhine who joined the band in 2014 brings, once again, brings an array of piano and keyboards as well as his trumpet playing which has become a fan favorite at live shows.

The songs touch on a wide variety of themes populated by varied characters: the political allegory of two campaign wogs dining at a fancy restaurant in “Tip the Maitre D'”; the mentally damaged characters reaching out for help of “A Capacity for Violence”; the locals fighting gentrification against “Out of Towners”; the “happy to be rid of her” cad shouting for joy in “You’re Going to Miss Me.”

“Queequeg’s Coffin” throws in some Herman Melville references alongside gorgeous harmonies and dueling guitars. The album’s centerpiece, the epic “Waterline,” boasts lengthy guitar solos by Reginald DeJesus, arguably the greatest guitar solos in band’s long history. The album’s closer, the 8 minute plus “Spiderbite” has been described by one early listener as “the weirdest song I’ve heard in awhile.”

There’s even a trumpet driven pseudo Christmas song that songs more like a soccer pub fight song than “White Christmas.”